Tag Archives ⇒ ties

March 29: A Quaker Trans Day of Visibility Gathering

March 10, 2026
· Martin Kelley

Ten authors fea­tured in the March 2026 Friends Jour­nal spe­cial issue on gen­der and sex­u­al iden­ti­ties join trans and non­bi­na­ry mod­er­a­tors for facil­i­tat­ed con­ver­sa­tion. Free and both online at at Swarth­more Col­lege. Learn more here.

I wrote the intro­duc­to­ry col­umn for this issue. Here’s a taste:

am grate­ful that both our reli­gious soci­ety and wider cul­ture have devel­oped a greater under­stand­ing of the diver­si­ty of gen­der expres­sions. I appre­ci­ate an expand­ed vocab­u­lary with which to include peo­ple. (Only ten years ago the sin­gu­lar “they” was still cau­tioned against in the Friends Jour­nal style guide!) Change can be con­fus­ing and bewil­der­ing, but open con­ver­sa­tions between Friends one-on-one and in set­tings like a clear­ness com­mit­tee can help us under­stand one anoth­er in our long­ing to be known and loved.

You can read the whole issue on Friends Jour­nal.

A Quaker Trans Day of Visibility Gathering: A free online & in person event for Friends
A Quak­er Trans Day of Vis­i­bil­i­ty Gath­er­ing: A free online & in per­son event for Friends 
A Quaker Trans Day of Visibility Gathering: A free online & in person event for Friends A Quak­er Trans Day of Vis­i­bil­i­ty Gath­er­ing: A free online & in per­son event for Friends 

Indigenous and Quaker Both

January 27, 2026
· Martin Kelley

There’s often an implied us-them dichoto­my when Quak­ers talk about Indige­nous Peo­ples so I’m fas­ci­nat­ed by com­mu­ni­ties that are both. My col­league Sharlee DiMenichi wrote about the hand­ful of month­ly meet­ings — and an entire year­ly meet­ing — in the U.S. that are major­i­ty Indige­nous.

I love com­pli­cat­ed iden­ti­ties like this. There’s a lot of dis­cern­ment that goes on about how to incor­po­rate Indige­nous and Quak­er ele­ments into life. For many, it seems a sur­pris­ing­ly nat­ur­al fit. This is true else­where, in parts of Africa and South Amer­i­ca, where mis­sion­ary Quak­ers’ beliefs meshed with the belief sys­tems of pre-colonial eth­nic groups, allow­ing an easy transition.

Also of inter­est is that these meet­ings are all Chris­t­ian, which demog­ra­phers tell us is the norm for Native Amer­i­cans today.1 Decolo­nial­ism means some­thing very dif­fer­ent for those who are com­mit­ted to hold on to Christianity.

Indigenous and Quaker Both
Indige­nous and Quak­er Both 

Explore how Native Quak­er com­mu­ni­ties hold onto their unique cul­ture while prac­tic­ing Christ-centered wor­ship cul­tur­al com­mon­al­i­ties, and shared…

Friends Journal Friends Journal 

Michael Moore explains how deal with Lies and Lying Liars

September 26, 2003
· Martin Kelley

Film­mak­er Michael Moore’s satir­ic doc­u­men­tary on gun own­er­ship in the Unit­ed States is out on video and DVD now. “Bowl­ing for Columbine” is pure Moore: he goes around the coun­try talk­ing with gun own­ers and gun vic­tims but also ties it all in with a cul­ture of mil­i­tarism and violence.
Not unpre­dictably, the pro-gun lob­bies have cam­paigned against the movie and have tried to dis­cred­it it. In the last month or so, plen­ty of blogs and even some of the cable news net­works have been full of expos­es of the film­mak­er’s sup­posed deceits. “Now Moore response to his critics”:http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/wackoattacko/
If you haven’t seen “Bowl­ing for Columbine” go right out to your video store and do. Moore is one of the best satirists in the coun­try today. He com­bines humor with hor­ror and pro­duces work that is always com­pelling to watch.